the Henry Porter, son of a London gentleman, who matriculated from Brasenose on 19 June 1589 (Boase and Clark, ii. 2, 170), or the Henricus
Porter, apparently a musician, of John Weever's Epigrammes (1599), v. 24, or the Henry Porter of Christ Church who became B.Mus. in July 1600 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. i. 284), or the Henry Porter who was a royal sackbut on 21 June 1603 (Nagel, 36), or the Henry Porter whose son Walter became Gentleman of the Chapel Royal on 5 Jan. 1616 and has left musical works (D. N. B.). Gayley's argument to the contrary rests on the unfounded assumption that the musician could not have been writing Bankside plays during the progress of his studies for his musical degree.
The Two Angry Women of Abingdon > 1598
1599. The Pleasant Historie of the two angrie women of Abington. With the humorous mirthe of Dicke Coomes and Nicholas Prouerbes, two Seruingmen. As it was lately playde by the right Honorable the Earle of Nottingham, Lord High Admirall, his seruants. By Henry Porter Gent. For Joseph Hunt and William Ferbrand. [Prologue. Greg shows this to be Q_{1}.] 1599. For William Ferbrand.
Editions in Dodsley^4 (1874), and by G. M. Gayley (1903, R. E. C. i), J. S. Farmer (1911, T. F. T.), W. W. Greg (1912, M. S. R.). The play shows no signs of being a sequel, and is presumably the First Part, to which Porter wrote a Second Part (vide infra) in the winter of 1598-9. It was an Admiral's play, and therefore one would expect to find it in Henslowe's very full, if not absolutely exhaustive, chronicle of the company's repertory. Of the plays named as his by Henslowe, Love Prevented seems the only likely title. But he was in the pay of the company before the diary began to record the authorship of plays, and Part i may therefore be among the anonymous plays of 1596-7 or an earlier season. Gayley suggests The Comedy of Humours, produced 11 May 1597, but that is more plausibly identified with Chapman's Humorous Day's Mirth (q.v.). Another possibility is Woman Hard to Please, produced 27 Jan. 1597.
Lost Plays
Henslowe's diary records the following plays for the Admiral's men, in which Porter had a hand in 1598 and 1599:
(i) Love Prevented.
May 1598. Vide Two Angry Women of Abingdon, supra.
(ii) Hot Anger Soon Cold.
With Chettle and Jonson, Aug. 1598.
(iii) 2 Two Angry Women of Abingdon.
Dec. 1598-Feb. 1599.
(iv) Two Merry Women of Abingdon.
Feb. 1599.
(v) The Spencers.
With Chettle, March 1599.
